Qualitative Research methodology in healthcare/hospitals

Practical
Challenges a researcher encounters for Qualitative Research
is a crucial aspect in the healthcare sector.

Now many
questions naturally strike the mind once we hear the term Qualitative research.
What is qualitative research in healthcare sector? How to accomplish it? What
are the reasons to choose qualitative research? What are the challenges
researchers have to face?

Let us
take one by one.

Qualitative research doesn’t follow a particular technique rather it’s a phenomenon to conceptualize the practical view.

Once the
research question is set, research procedures will start.It includes
appropriate method selection, designing the method to get the answers to the
research questions. It is a social view of a particular context and
interpretation of the relationship between patients and health professionals.

Qualitative
research methods involves

• Systematic collection,
• Organizing, and interpretation of
  material in textual form derived from talks and observations

We can
summerise the significant reasons for choosing this area of research as follows

• Through this research, the emotions, perceptions and actions of people who are suffering a medical condition can be understood
• Through personal interaction between health professionals and patients, healthcare professionals can realize the true meaning of their professions.
• In these interactions,  patients are considered as  whole human beings. Patient’s behavioral changes that are observed during such interactions can help to develop effective  health or educational policies.

Qualitative
research is a significant tool for the perception of health phenomena and to
understand the major gaps in research where the invasion is needed.

Challenges faced by researchers in qualitative
research

• First of all
  there is no such set of rules to accomplish the research work, It depends on interaction
  with participants, conceptualize the overview followed by interpretation and explanation.
• No security and
  safety backup for any mistakes.
• Though the Qualitative Research Methods have been persuaded through systematic
  collection, organization and interpretation of derived data from personal
  interaction and putting that in textual format still health community are
  skeptic about the adequacy of appropriate fact. According to Corbin, general
  interest in qualitative method and particular grounded theory has escalated in the
  last 10 years..
• Identification of
  the research problem and selection of appropriate methodology are the
  preliminary challenges of researchers.
• Some important
  challenges faced by researchers are inconsistency between research question and
  methods adopted, insufficiency of methodological knowledge and lack of
  attentiveness.

As a
researcher one should have proper information about interview, knowledge of
data sampling  or Qualitative
Data Analysis to understand the phenomena of study
so that it will be interesting otherwise their methodology will fail to develop
the research question and the ontological and epidemiological assumptions.

The aim of
qualitative researchers is to set the question of what exactly they intend to
get answer through interaction with patients

Questions
can take you to focus on a project that was not addressed earlier.

Normally
we find the following problems out of the research questions:

• Deciding what research topic to choose
  among the wide range of problems that fall under your domain of interest.
•  Often focus on an interesting part of the
  topic is missed as we tend to give more importance to a major part of the work.
• It is a challenge to know which area
  you want to focus on.
• It is also a difficult job to find out
  what specific areas and topics are hard to articulate a clear question.

Researchers
often face problems in finding the right topics in their field of interest
because they do not perform a broad literature review to find the gaps and
problems suitable to be investigated.

Sometimes
their domain of interest is distinct from their supervisors or there are no
experts to help them in this regard.

Researches
normally get confused to find the accurate topic of their field of interest
that sometimes differ from their supervisors. Researchers have to identify the
topic through literature review, personal and professional experience and also
by expert’ s opinion. After the selection of topic, the Questionnaire
has to be framed in such a way that the intention of research can be viewed
clearly. Both the theoretical assumption and practical experience must go hand
in hand. It includes five of the following six- 
who, when, where, what, how and, why and the entire set should be
devised by the sixth.

 Research questions are the most crucial part of the whole process as the end result depends on these. So researchers should give more time discussing with experts, gaining knowledge for making questions.

How to choose the proper methodology and research design

Selection
of the best methodology like enthography or grounded theory is vital once you
have identified the initial question for research. Most of the newbies fail to
find out the most suitable design to carry out the research. They also fail to
discover the right methodology that will hold the answer to the question.
Therefore, researchers need to do their homework here like planning for the
qualitative research and selection of methodology.

Students
or researchers often chose qualitative research as they find it easier than the
other methodologies available. But they should remember that qualitative
research is only the initial stage. Moreover, it is by no means a simple
methodology as it involves processes like data collection or data analysis
which can throw you a lot of challenges. Therefore, well thought out plans are
required in every phase of the research process, starting from preparing the
question to the final research write-up that will be published.

Conclusion

Qualitative research is basically a social tool to carry out research on health-related phenomena. Of course there are challenges involved in doing such projects like recognizing the actual problem, preparing the question, choosing the right methodology and research design. One has to have proper planning and arrangements in every cycle of the process and make sure to have a right understanding of the nature and character of the inquiries.